Before your bone brakes there are different noises. Scientists developed a system that measures this sound and can tell you to stop before it's to late.

The researchers are applying the same basic sound detection technique seismologists use to measure earthquakes. "The goal is to create a wearable device that would alert the person when a stress fracture was imminent so that they could stop rigorous physical activity long enough for the bone to heal," said Ozan Akkus, an associate professor in Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

What I learned too is that bones are self-repairing systems. They dig a tunnel into the damaged zone and fill it. Interesting. With the Wearable stress-fracture detection system you can give your bones a chance to repair themself.

The system makes most sense in the army (sure) and for sports (even horse races - this time it will be for the horse of course).

Just read on here

Polo-Shirts.co.uk reports about a new T-Shirt with build in clock. Cool idea - if the design is brilliant. However, I found no other news about it but would love to see a picture. Help anywhere?

A new t-shirt which tells the time by displaying a digital clock on its front has been launched.

The time t-shirt shows a large clock in the middle of the chest of the wearer using four triple A batteries located near the clock panel.

For washing purposes, the battery pack can be removed, while there is also a stop-watch function.

look here: New time t-shirt launched

The Modtechgroup (MTC) won a contract to develop power sources for portable weapon systems.

What is it about:

Under the task order, MTC (Nasdaq: MTCT) will research and develop power sources that reduce energy consumption, while increasing energy storage and power generation for wearable computer systems, sensor devices and other handheld devices that soldiers and first responders carry into battle and urban environments.

That could help the mobile industry too... Nice deal.

via Daytona Business Journal

Looks like logistics is a main application field for wearable computing. Here is the next computer for the logistics business.

The HX2 computer is a small, light-weight data collection computer designed to be worn on an operator's arm or waist so that both hands are free to more effectively and efficiently perform warehouse inventory moves, including piece picking to carts, containers or conveyers; case picking; parcel moves; and broken case activities.

The HX2 wearable computer also includes LXE's ToughTalkTM technology. ToughTalk technology is LXE's specialized combination of LXE's trademark ruggedized system design, advanced audio circuitry and noise canceling techniques, which enable the HX2 wearable computer to support today's industrial-grade voice recognition applications.

But it's a tough computer too:

It has to be to survive the tough work environments in which it will be used. The HX2 wearable computer's magnesium alloy front and impact-resistant screen are designed to keep the unit in service and out of the repair shop.

No idea, maybe they use it to scan soldiers in the field too? Then it has to be tough ;-)

What comes to your mind when you think about ants? For example that they can carry 8 times their own weight. To transfer animal skills is an old dream of mankind. No wonder that the armed services are interested too:

the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is funding a US$50 million project known as "Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation".

The scope of the program includes the development of actively controlled exoskeletons that not only increase strength and speed, but enable larger weapons to be carried, provide a higher level of protection from enemy fire or chemical attack, allow wearers to stay active longer and carry more food, ammunition and field supplies. Exoskeletons may eventually even be programmed to bring injured soldiers back to base by themselves.

via gizmag: Wearable Robots

Some trends reported from the ISPO (huge fashion fair) and the Outdoor (huge outdoor fashion fair):

Portable technology is now being developped by several brands. +++ LEVI'S has launched a line of clothing with IPOD connectability. +++ NIKE has a new line of shoes that are connected to Nike Central that inform the wearer on the state of the terrain. +++ ADIDAS is developping a line of clothing and shoes that would inform the wearer of his physical state and performance. +++ FRWD can now register data from a race. +++ The new jackets by BURTON SNOWBOARDS, in partnership with Motorola, are equipped with mobile phones and music creating truly electronic ready-to-wear.

Techwear is growing and it becomes more famouse everyday. (Today I found the first weblog that said "welcome to the world of techwear" - it's here)

A bit more about other trends too: new strategies

DEMOfall is the place for new high-tech companies to present their business ideas and solutions. It's kinda view into whats hip today in the business world. I'm lucky that Torsten (Blogger and Creative Weblogging founder) was there and presented most of the companies. So if you're interested in high-tech (and my readers should I think ;-) it's worth a look.

Main trends this time are mobile and security. But security in the meaning of password protection mostly.
So there is nothing really interesting for Wearable Computing beside Mvox - voice control technology (see picture).

The World's 1st All-in-One Wearable Smart Communicator with one-touch voice dialing. Be among the first to own an Mvox Duo. Pre-Order your Duo today! Available in November 2006.

Thanks to our tagging feature here are all DEMOfall 2006 entries at once:DEMOfall06 by Torsten

Symbol introduces the WT4000 Series Wearable Terminal - a mobile computer that is wearable and works in different environments with it's hands-free interface. The company focusses on the B2B business and most of all the logistics sector. Or in their own words:

From the dusty warehouse floor to the cooler and freezer, this rugged device delivers the information your workers need to streamline and error-proof processes, improving throughput and customer service for a rapid return on investment.

The data sheet for more information is here The PR news is here

WT4000 Series Wearable Terminal

Just a reminder that the impressive International Symposium on Wearable Computing 2006 in Montreux starts tomorrow and is worth a deeper look at.

Even if wednesday starts a bit slow the topics are:

# 14:00-15:00 Invited Talk

* Augmented Human Perception: Interfaces to Enhance the Human Capacity for Perception and Expression
* Masahiko Inami, University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan

# 15:15-16:30 Activity Recognition I

* Towards Less Supervision in Activity Recognition from Wearable Sensors
* Tâm Hùynh and Bernt Schiele
* Discovering Characteristic Actions from On-Body Sensor Data
* David Minnen, Thad Starner, Irfan Essa and Charles Isbell

This should give you a glue, look at the other days too to get an idea what our world (and most interesting IT topics) will be about in the next years.

While others try to start into the era of ubiquitous computing - Japan tries harder. The country wants to become the lead in the Ubiquitous Economy. And their chances are quite good because they have a great infrastructure right now for example in web access via mobiles.

If you want to know more about just read the press release from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. [pdf, 26 pages]

Some of the facts:
What is the paper about:
○ Today, Japan faces various challenges associated with social life and economic activities due to changes in the social and economic environments including the declining and aging of the population.
○ Therefore, this paper studies the mechanism by which development of ubiquitous networks could transform the Japanese social and economic systems and create economic vitality.

Then they look into the IT market and it's development followed by an I would call it Web 2.0 overview. New forms of collaboration, new consumption and buying behaviors and new marketing trends, even labor economics is a topic:

Chapter 1 investigates and analyzes ubiquitous economy, which is the feature of this paper, and reports the results.
First, Section 1 indicates the trends in ICT industries, ...

Very very cool is: Philips. Often enough I had this thought the last years but now they kick it. The company designer play around with an old idea from me: Clothes that show the emotion of the wearer.

Philips Design has developed dynamic garments as part of the ongoing SKIN exploration research into the area known as 'emotional sensing'. The garments, which are intended for demonstration purposes only, demonstrate how electronics can be incorporated into fabrics and garments in order to express the emotions and personality of the wearer.

Sure, much more's possible but thats the first time I see the vision live and light always delights me.

Listen to what Clive van Heerden, Senior Director of design-led innovation at Philips Design has to say:

My BNP (Blog Network Provider ;-) looks for a web developer and as long as I know the boss of Creative Weblogging, Torsten, this sounds like a cool (and sunny) position:

We provide a great work environment in sunny California in the heart of Silicon Valley. We are a young, small and entrepreneurial team that enjoys solving challenging issues as a team every day.

Is it USA, Germany, China or somewhere else in this world.

Join us here: Creative Weblogging: New position at CW - Join us as a Web Developer

Konica Minolta developed a new display and is looking for possible applications. The technology sounds nice:

The Holographic See-Through Browser prototype resembles a pair of eyeglasses and uses a prism with a thickness of 3.5 millimeters and a holographic element to reduce the weight of the display to 27 grams.

One use I can imagine - a men (or woman) with a hoover doing this:
how a user could watch a motorcycle race on the display while walking around their house.

The other idea I await for years is real 3D-game feeling...

Nokia developed a competing technology to Bluetooth called Wibree. The business features are: power-efficient (can be used in smaller devices), scalable (using the same components Bluetooth does).

Whats interesting is that they use a close2wearable example to describe the advantage of Wibree:

The technology could compete with Bluetooth in the workplace as a way to link keyboards and other peripherals to computers. But it could also have more interesting applications for consumers, in devices such as wrist watches, toys and sports equipment.

Or more in detail the possible functionality (like with Nike and Apple):

Because of its low power requirements, it could be used in tiny sensors that could be worn by a jogger, for example, to collect information about his heart rate or distance traveled. The sensors could send the information to a mobile phone via Wibree, which in turn would upload the information to a website where the jogger could compare his performance with that of other runners or get advice from a trainer.

via CIO Blog and Nokia (picture from Nokia)